Page 50 of Pure Magic
We walk deeper into the woods. The sun is setting, and we’ll have to fully rely on the horses to take us north through the night. The magic moves as we do.
“It’s possible the coven was looking for us.” My hope to return there and be safe, and more importantly, to see Sara Beth safe, feeds my statement more than any real possibility.
I hear her no in my head before she speaks. “That felt too aggressive for a friend. They would find a more sensible way to contact us. A way that wouldn’t make us hide.”
Despite knowing she’s right, I pray Ariana and Kaden are far away, looking in the wrong place.
“I hope so too,” Sara Beth says.
I touch my chest where I’ve hidden the wand again. “Can we assume they know nothing of the items made to defeat them?”
“I wish I knew, Adam.”
For hours, the horses continue on.
I am dozing in the saddle and wake when they walk toward a dense shrub. “Beth.”
She startles awake and pulls the reins, but Zephyr shakes her head to gain more lead and barrels right through the center of the greenery.
I stop.
Pilot blows air and stomps in protest.
Heart hammering, I can’t see Sara Beth. Loosening the reins is all it takes, and my horse walks right through the center of the shrub.
No branches or brambles touch me, and a moment later, I’m on the other side. A bright half-moon lights the clearing with thick grass inside a circle of trees and a clear pond that shimmers in the moon’s glow. It’s warmer by at least twenty degrees in this little patch of beauty.
Sara Beth slides from her saddle. “Goddess. I thought I’d be torn up by stickers, not brought through to an oasis.”
The bubble of protection vanishes, and panic bombards me.
A touch from her mind, and I’m calm. She says, “It’s sacred ground. Only those in the light and their magic can enter here.”
Tentative, I drop to my feet. “Let’s get the tack off the horses and let them find something to eat. We’ll have to settle for the bread we have left. Maybe some berries are in the bushes.”
She uses magic to unsaddle Zephyr and Pilot then removes their halters the same way. Everything she does is with ease and grace.
I love to watch her magic and her movements. She’s beautiful and strong at the same time. If I were a poet, perhaps I could do justice to describing her. As it is, I’m only a mesmerizer and illusionist. I hardly deserve her. Still, she loves me. My heart swells with the truth of it as she walks to the water’s edge.
The horses rear up playfully then trot to a patch of grass where they munch away.
One last look that the horses are safe, and I join her. “I don’t know about you, but that looks like a fine place to bathe.”
With a wicked smile, she calls her pack from the ground next to the saddles. It floats across the empty space as if it were meant to do so then settles on the ground at our feet. Crouching, she opens it and pulls out a cake of soap. “A bath would be welcome.”
“Do you want me to join you, or wait until you’re finished?” It’s only a bath, but my heart pounds with fear she’ll reject me.
“And I thought I worried too much.” She shakes her head and hands me the soap. Untying the front laces of her dress, she never takes her gaze from mine. “If I didn’t want you to join me, I would have told you to watch the horses or turn your back.” Once the garment is loose, she lets it fall to the grass.
For the long ride, she’s also wearing breeches and some kind of binding around her chest. She bends to remove her boots, but I stop her.
“Let me, Beth.” I drop to my knees and tug the leather over the buttons. Her ankles are slim, and I let my hand graze the stockings.
Gripping my shoulder, she steps out of one then the other before loosening the fall of her trousers and letting them drop.
As she unwraps the binding like a bandage, I roll her stockings down her legs. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. What she sees in me, I’ll never know.
With a toss, the wrapping lands on her pack, and gloriously naked, she cups my cheek and draws me to stand in front of her. “I see a beautiful man who has been through more than most people could survive, and stayed in the light. I see strength and determination, despite your anger. Most of all, I see love, Adam.”
